‘Snake Eyes’ Gets Two New Featurettes!! Check It Out!!

Paramount Pictures has released two new featurettes promoting the upcoming film Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins. With two very different tones, both highlight the star appeal of its title character, played by Last Christmas actor Henry Golding, amping up audiences for the G.I. Joe prequel film coming to theaters later this month.

The first, a ninety-second training featurette, highlights the rigorous process it takes to become a fighter worthy of a G.I. Joe film, with Snakes Eyes’ actors going “from zero to sixty” to become fighting machines. Including sound bites from Golding, Samara Weaving (Scarlett), Ursula Corbero (The Baroness), and Andrew Koji (Storm Shadow), viewers can see the actors becoming their characters, “breathing them” through the stunt training and intense commitment to performing their own action sequences.

“We all know Snake Eyes as this absolute weapon,” Golding says, “So I knew I had to step up my game.”

In addition to splicing footage of the upcoming film with footage from stunt rehearsals and fight training, the clip also highlights Kenji Tanigaki, the film’s fight coordinator and second unit director. With nearly fifty stunt credits to his name, Tanigaki is an expert in not only sword work, but in gun fighting and car chase sequences, making him the perfect triple threat for a film like Snake Eyes. Stunt coordinator Kimani Ray Smith says that Tanigaki’s sword choreography is “the best [he’s] ever seen”, and Golding and Koji praise the years of experience that he lends to their characters.

Additionally, Paramount has released a less intense promotional video, a stop-motion PSA using the original G.I. Joe action figures that audiences know so well, along with some new figures sculpted after Snakes Eyes’ stars. Reminiscent of both a PBS feature and a Robot Chicken short, the PSA sees three children running after a lost ball past a number of safety hazards, with iconic G.I. Joe characters warning them of danger along the way. The children blow them off, until their ball rolls to a stop at the feet of Snake Eyes, who whips off his iconic mask to ‘promote’ the new film.

The other characters are up in arms that someone made a film without them, including a couple of Cobra action figures, who are unceremoniously kicked into shape by the Snake Eyes/Golding figure, who yells, “it’s an origin story!” The clip ends in standard, cheesy PSA style, with all the characters/figures joining together to say, “And knowing is half the battle.”

Snake Eyes is directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos, and produced by Brian Goldner, Erik Howsam, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura, with a screenplay by Spiliotopoulos, Anna Waterhouse, and Joe Shrapnel. Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins will premiere in theaters on July 23. Check out both new featurettes for Snake Eyes below.